After several unsuccessful attempts to form settlements in the southern part of North America, in which little more had been done than giving the name of Virginia, in compliment to the virgin Queen Elizabeth, to the country, a patent was obtained in 1606, from James I., by Sir Thomas Gates and associates, for all lands there between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude; and, at the patentees’ own solicitation, they were divided into two companies;[1] to the former of which were granted all the lands between the thirty-fourth and forty-first degrees of north latitude, and to the latter all those between the thirty-eighth and forty-fifth degrees. A part of the coast of the territory last mentioned being explored in 1614, and a chart presented to the then Prince of Wales, afterward Charles I., it received from him the appellation of New England. In the mean time, however, notwithstanding the claim of the English in general to North America, and the particular grant to Sir Thomas Gates and associates, above mentioned, the Dutch got footing on Manhattan or New York Island, pushed up Hudson’s River, as high as Albany, and were beginning to spread on its banks when, in 1614, they were compelled by Sir Samuel Argal to acknowledge themselves subjects of the King of England, and submit to the authority of the Governor of Virginia.[2] For the better enabling them to accomplish their American undertakings, the Plymouth Company, in 1620, obtained a new patent, admitting new members of rank and fortune. By this they were styled “The Council, established at Plymouth, for planting and governing the said country called New England;” and to them were now granted all the lands between the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, and extending east and west from the Atlantic ocean to the South Sea, except such as were then actually possessed by any Christian prince or people.[3] Not long afterward, the patentees came to the resolution of making a division of the country among themselves by lot, which they did in the presence of James I. The map of New England, etc., published by Purchas in 1625, which is now become scarce, and probably the only memorial extant of the result, has the following names on the following portions of the coast: Earl of Arundel, } Sir Ferdinando Gorges, } Between the rivers St. Croix and Earl of Carlisle, } Penobscot. Lord Keeper, } Sir William Belassis, } Between Penobscot and Sagadahoc Sir Robert Mansell, } river. Earl of Holderness, } Earl of Pembroke, } Lord Sheffield, } Sir Henry Spelman, } Sir William Apsley, } Between Sagadahoc and Charles Captain Love, } river. Duke of Buckingham, } Earl of Warwick, } Duke of Richmond, } Mr. Jennings, } Dr. Sutcliffe, }